Murray makes short work of Frenchman

Andy Murray kicked off his clay season on the right foot with an efficient 6-1 6-4 victory over 81st-ranked Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin at the Monte Carlo Masters this afternoon.

The world number two took just 73 minutes to breeze past the 29-year-old, who had benefited from playing three matches in the qualifying tournament. The Frenchman had also beaten Robin Haase in round one, while the Scot was granted a bye as one of the top seeds.

Murray raced into a 4-0 lead in his first clay match since last year’s French Open and looked at home on the crushed dirt. There was a minor lapse as the Scot then dropped serve, but he recovered to seal a third break and serve out the set.

After breaking early in the second set, Murray survived a single break-back point and a time violation to establish a 4-2 lead. When he was warned again for abusing the clock, the British number one directed some choice Anglo Saxon at the umpire. The number two seed quickly regained composure, however, and served out for a routine victory.

Murray, who plays Stanislas Wawrinka in the next round, has had his clay credentials endorsed by former world number one Boris Becker.

The German said: “Andy is still improving with the help of Ivan Lendl, and this [clay] is where we might see it the most. His forehand is definitely better and so is his position on the court. For me, the key is that he keeps playing aggressively so that he doesn’t have to do so much running.”

A no nonsense report, a good one and a very good result for Andy. Looking forward to seeing Andy progressing on clay. He seemed very comfortable today on the red stuff.

April 17, 2013, 05:36 PMBy michelle

Fantastic start for our Andy today. I thoroughly enjoyed the match. It was brilliant to see him looking so confident on the clay. His movement was great, he was sliding well, without scaring me half to death in the process!

I suppose it won't get easier, but that start should (hopefully) give Andy something good to build on. Well done lad .

April 17, 2013, 05:37 PMBy teejay1

Well done Andy you are improving on the red dirt a very good win.

April 17, 2013, 05:53 PMBy Littlebuddha

Good and confident win. Pleasure to watch with no stress. Not sure tomorrow will be quite as stress free.

April 17, 2013, 06:16 PMBy Tessie

Great win for Andy. I think he absolutely had right on his side in his little argument with the umpire. It can't be right that the receiver can hold up play and then the server is penalised for that. They have to look at that.

Great to see Andy playing well inside the court much of the time and sliding around with ease. He himself commented that it was good he was going to the net more, which suggests that is something they've been working on.

Comms said Andy has 2nd best record for aces of top 10 this year - after JWT. But worst record of top 18 on 2nd serve points so still room for improvement there. But good to see the first serve working well today although the 1st serve in stats at end weren't as good as I expected.

While not wanting to be a party pooper, I remember Andy made a brilliant start last year too, but couldn't keep it up - though that may well have been because of his back. If he can achieve his first clay court win over Stan tomorrow that would really set him up for the clay court season. But feeling already